


Oh Father, I Have Never Known A Darkness So Intense

by orphan_account



Series: Adoption [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Iron Dad, Irondad, Minor Character Death, Multi, Other, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 12:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17807954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A fire claimed everything Peter had known. Tony get’s custody of Peter but nothing is okay.





	Oh Father, I Have Never Known A Darkness So Intense

Independence Day is a cause for great celebration for most Americans, but Peter Parker is not most Americans. He is also Spider-Man and his spider-like abilities include heightened senses, such as extremely sensitive hearing. Tony Stark knows all about Peter Parker’s abilities so when he offered for Peter to spend the night at the Tower with him on July 4th, it wasn’t by accident. He knew very well that fireworks going off all night would be extremely painful for Peter’s sensitive ears and he can soundproof the tower for him, no problem. Sure, he could just let the kid use the super soundproof headphones he had made especially for him but really, what fun would that be for Peter?  
Peter and Tony spent their evening playing video games, watching television, and eating takeout food before Tony sent Peter to bed around one-thirty a.m. Tony never turned on the news, and no one called him or Peter, so when he pulled up to what was now the burned down mess of what used to be Peter’s apartment building to drop the kid off, he was more than a little surprised.  
Tony turned to look at Peter in the passenger seat. The kid had gone completely still, and his eyes were wider than Tony had ever seen them. “Peter, buddy, I had no idea. Did your aunt or uncle contact you at all?”  
That seemed to snap Peter out of his daze and he immediately dug out his phone, he checked every possible way of communication on his phone and when he realized there was nothing from his aunt or uncle he frantically called their phones, both went straight to voicemail. Peter couldn’t seem to breathe correctly but he managed to choke out, “Nothing, Mr. Stark!”  
Tony was panicking! The kid in the seat next to him was staring at his home, burned to the ground and now he couldn’t contact either of his guardians. Tony had a bad feeling but decided to remain optimistic about the situation. Maybe Ben and May had escaped without time to grab their phones. That was a definite possibility, right?  
Tony told Peter to stay put and keep trying to reach someone who might know where his aunt and uncle were while he went and talked to one of the police that was at the scene.   
“Excuse me officer, what happened here?”  
“Rogue firework. Some idiots in the street setting off illegal fireworks and it got out of hand, hit something that exploded and whole building was in flames in no time.” The officer explained.  
“Is there a certain hospital where they took people?” Tony asked somberly, hoping the officer would say that everyone was fine.  
“Yeah yeah, uhh it’s Mount Sinai, I believe. Sir did you have a relative in this fire?”  
Tony shook his head, “No, just some friends of mine live here and I want to make sure they’re alright.”  
“Sir, I hate to be the one to tell you this and I hope this doesn’t apply to your friends but no one past the fourth floor made it out alive. It was late. Almost everyone was sleeping, and it was already too engulfed for the fireman to make it past the fourth floor when they arrived… Sir?”  
Tony had turned around to look at Peter back in the car, still desperately trying to contact his aunt and uncle. “Thank you, just… they lived on the seventh floor.”   
“I’m so sorry sir, is there anything I can do to help?”  
“No. I’m just. I’m gonna go. I have to let their family know.”  
The officer nodded and offered his condolences again as Tony slowly made his way back to the car. How was he supposed to get in and tell a fifteen-year-old boy that the only family he had was gone, but they weren’t all gone, were they? Tony was his family too, not legally but that could be amended. Tony was in their will. He was to be Peter’s guardian if anything ever happened to his aunt and uncle. It had seemed so unlikely when they had asked him. Would Peter even want that? The kid was about to have his whole world ripped apart and Tony was going to be the one to tell him. Would Peter really want to stay with Tony? He didn’t really have a choice but to find out, he had to get in the car and tell Peter. This was about to be one of the worst days of both their lives.   
Tony sat down in the driver seat and looked at the kid next to him, “Peter? I talked to the officer about the fire.”  
“They’re dead, aren’t they?” Peter’s voice was lifeless. No anger, no sadness, just apathy. He knew. He’d known the minute they pulled up. He didn’t need his spider sense, it was obvious the building burned from the top down. There were only nine floors and he was on the seventh. His aunt and uncle would have called him or contacted him if they were still alive. Anyone on the seventh floor would have contacted him to let him know about the fire if they had survived. None of them had answered the phone when he’d dialed their numbers. They were all gone.  
Tony flinched at his tone, he thought Peter would be much more emotional and not so numb. He must be in shock, Tony figured. “The office said no one above the fourth floor made it out alive. I’m so sorry, Peter.”  
“Okay.”  
“Peter? I’m going to drive us back to the Tower now, okay?”  
“Okay.”  
Peter was so still. He just sat in the passenger seat and stared straight ahead. The kid didn’t say another word the whole rest of the drive, he didn’t even cry. Peter wasn’t shy around Tony anymore and Tony could usually tell what Peter’s was feeling, but right now, looking at the teenager next to him, it was like looking at a shell that no longer held Peter Parker’s personality.  
Peter was out of the car the moment Tony put it in park, he walked through the door to the tower and was nowhere to be seen when Tony entered the building seconds after him. “FRIDAY let me know if Peter leaves the Tower, please.”  
FRIDAY spoke immediately, “Mister Parker exited the window of his bedroom only seconds ago dressed as Spiderman.”  
Well that surprised Tony. He thought the kid would be too emotional for a while to be going out as Spiderman, and Peter always told him before he left. Tony knew this had to really suck for the kid, so he decided to let him have some time to process by himself and not go after him right away. Tony had business to conduct anyway, he got ahold of his legal team and had them sorting things out right away to get custody of Peter legally transferred to him. Tony heart wrenched as he had to call around to get the paperwork for the identities of Peter’s aunt and uncle and confirmations they were deceased sent to his legal team to speed the process of custody and he also got to work on picking a place for a funeral. For a moment he wondered if he should wait and ask Peter to help with any of the arrangements, but he thought back to the losses in his life and how he’d wanted to be as far away from it all as possible. Peter was nothing like Tony’s younger self, but he sure was acting the way Tony would have. Avoidance.   
It had been six hours and Peter hadn’t come back to the Tower or answered any of Tony’s text messages, but FRIDAY had connected to Karen (Peter’s suit) and all of Peter’s vitals were normal and the kid wasn’t seeming to put himself in any danger or hurt anyone badly so Tony let it go. Peter had a summer curfew of eleven o’clock, so if he wasn’t back by then Tony would go look for him. When it started getting dark, Tony started getting worried, especially when Peter’s curfew came and went. Tony had just decided that he was going to go out and get the kid when he got a text from Peter.

Peter: Staying the night at Ned’s.

Tony: Geez Pete, I’ve been worried, I called you like 10 times. Curfew was half an hour ago. Your suit coordinates don’t say you’re at Ned’s. Why don’t you let me come get you?

Peter: On my way to Ned’s I meant, sorry about missing curfew. Will probably stay with Ned a while.

Tony: Okay Peter. I’m going to call you tomorrow, so please answer. Goodnight kiddo.

Peter: Night.

What was this? Denial? Peter wasn’t acknowledging that anything was wrong. He wasn’t exactly acting like Peter either. Sure, the teen had missed curfew plenty of times, but he always had a good reason or a lame excuse ready when Tony asked. Now Peter just passed over it like it didn’t matter. And why was he staying at Ned’s for a while? What did ‘a while’ mean?  
Peter’s coordinates were at Ned’s but when Tony called him the next afternoon, Peter didn’t answer again so Tony drove over there to collect the boy himself. When Mrs. Leeds let him and led him up to Ned’s bedroom, he was met by the two surprised faces of Ned and Peter.  
“Hey Peter, you didn’t answer your phone. I think you should come home for a while, bud.”  
“Mr. Stark, Ned and I are having a movie marathon and building Legos.” Peter pointed to the movie playing on the small box television screen and gestured to the Lego pieces scattered on the floor and sighed. “Can’t I please stay here a while longer?”  
“Sure, Peter. I guess that would be alright.” Tony eyed the boy suspiciously. Why was he acting so normal?   
“You’re welcome to stay to Mr. Stark!” Ned popped up, “I mean you’re probably busy but if you’re not and you like to, ya know, watch movies on really tiny screens, then you can stay and hang out with Peter and I.”  
Peter’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak but Tony interjected before he could, “Well thanks Ned, I’d love to. I’ve got nothing going on today.” He looked directly at Peter, ”I can stay as long as you’d like.”  
“Sweet! That’s so awesome Mr. Stark. Peter! This is gonna be so fun don’t you think?!” Ned elbowed him excitedly.  
“Sure, Ned.” Peter shrugged.  
Tony stayed with Ned and Peter for hours and Peter only spoke when Ned asked him direct questions. Ned obviously noticed that Peter wasn’t himself, but Tony didn’t think that Ned knew what had happened with Peter’s aunt and uncle. Ned was Peter’s best friend, he’d be more affected by it too.  
Later that evening when Tony was about to leave, Peter had finally spoken to him, declaring he was to stay at Ned’s again tonight. Tony looked at him and sighed before giving in and saying it was okay for him to do so. The kid wasn’t doing anything wrong and who was Tony to tell him how to grieve. If Peter needed space, then Tony would give him space. “Come home when you’re ready, Pete. I’ll be there.” Peter just nodded and said goodnight to Tony. Tony stood in the doorway a moment longer and watched the boys climb into bed before he shut the door and drove home. 

When everything was set, Tony had the death and funeral announcement printed in the local papers. The day that it went out in the papers was the day Pete came back to the Tower. Peter just glared at Tony when he asked him how his day had been. “Well it was fine until his parents read the paper.”  
“Oh, Peter. People are going to find out bud.”  
“Yeah well now it’s ruined cause I have nowhere else to go and Mr. Leeds was going to call child protective services or something, so I left.”  
“Nowhere else to… Peter what are you talking about? You’ll stay here. Didn’t your aunt and uncle ever tell you?”  
Peter narrowed his eyes. “Why would I stay here? Tell me what?”  
“Peter. Listen kid. I’m not great at this. Okay, look. I care about you. I like having you here. You used to like being here, I hope that after a while you’ll learn to like it again. Anyways, your aunt and uncle, they knew how much I care about you and they wanted someone who loves you like they did to take care of you if anything ever happened, so they asked me and of course I said ‘yes.’ So here we are. I get that this sucks, but you will always have a home here.”  
“I… I’m staying here? I don’t have to go anywhere else? You want me to stay here? With you?”  
“Of course, I do kid! I have legal custody pending right now. It’ll go through in a couple weeks tops and we’ll be all set with that. It was in their will, Pete. Look, I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but we’re gonna get through this together.”  
“I don’t… I can’t feel anything, Mr. Stark. Is that bad? Am I like in shock? It’s been a few days and I can’t feel emotions. I’m not sad or mad or happy. I just feel numb.”   
“You will, Peter. The shock, the numbness… it’ll wear off, and I’ll be here when it does, kid. Whatever you are or aren’t feeling. I’m here, okay? No matter what. I want to help you.”  
Peter just nodded. He didn’t have parent’s or an aunt or an uncle anymore, but he had Mr. Stark. He couldn’t feel anything, and he was a little worried he never would again, but maybe he didn’t want to. He knew he should be crying, he had loved his aunt and uncle, but he couldn’t get himself to feel anything, so he just went with it.

It took eight days for Peter to feel something again. Eight days for it all to come crashing down at once. It was the morning after the funeral. Peter couldn’t sleep that night and at around five in the morning it all caught up with him and suddenly he was sobbing, clutching his pillow to his face to drown out his painful sobs.   
FRIDAY woke Tony up minutes after Peter’s crying began to inform him that Peter was severely emotionally distressed. Tony found Peter in his bedrooms adjoining bathroom sobbing so hard he was gagging over the toilet.   
Peter jumped a little when he felt a hand rubbing his back. He turned and saw Tony, he wiped at his face and tried to tell Tony that he was fine and Tony could go back to bed but Tony just held Peter at his side and walked him back to his bed where Tony climbed in beside Peter and comforted him, a hand carding through his messy curls, and whispered reassurances until Peter finally fell asleep.

It had been a month and the paperwork has gone through and Tony had officially been Peter’s guardian for about a couple weeks now, and Peter was still sobbing into his pillow almost every night and Tony never hesitates to comfort his child. Peter curls into him now and accepts the comfort, the love he gets from Tony while he cries.   
Ned gives Peter space when he needs it, or a shoulder when he needs it, and Ned invited Peter over to his place to do nothing or to the movies and Peter is glad for the normalcy, glad to do the thing’s he has always done. Glad to numb the pain for a minute here and there. He’s safe with Ned because Ned never minds the moodiness, he let’s Peter feel what he feels.  
Peter isn’t alone. Nothing has ever hurt so badly and nothing is okay, and maybe it never will be again, but Peter is loved and he’s not alone and he has a man who is slowly becoming the father he always wanted (though he’d never admit it) and he has a best friend who never pitied him but always gave him the care he needed and he has a home and a warm bed and he has memories with his aunt and his uncle and he has Spiderman. He’s Spiderman and he’s Peter and he’s Mr. Stark’s kid and he’s Ned’s best friend and he’s a kid from Queens who now lives with a rich, famous superhero. It’s all different but he’s starting to believe that maybe someday it’s going to be okay again.

**Author's Note:**

> My dad died two years ago and the part I wrote about Peter feeling numb for 8 days was what I went through. I didn't cry or anythimg for 8 days and the day after his funeral I ended up finally feeling again and sobbing alone at 5 am and that continued on and off for like 2 months but I was alone and I can only wish I had a Mr. Stark to help me through it! :) 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the story!
> 
> Disclaimer- I don't own any characters or anything they all belong to Marvel.


End file.
